PART L] NOTES OF A JOURNEY IN THE ALPS 135 



and pretty little Campanula cenisia was abundant among the 

 higher plants, its tufts of light green among the debris. 

 One solitary tuft of Ranunculus alpestris was met with by 

 the side of a little rivulet ; a plant about 6 inches in 

 diameter, and quite pretty 

 where " specimens " are rare, 

 and where one thing 

 struggles with another in 

 the grass. 



Descending, the ground, 

 becoming more level, begins The Home of the purple Sarifrage ' 



to form an undulating basin between two ranges, and here the 

 short grass is jewelled with dwarf alpine plants and flowers. The 

 silky-leaved and very dwarf Senecio incanus occurs in thousands ; 

 the Cudweeds, too, are abundant, while a few inches above the 

 dense silvery turf formed by such plants, the large and beautiful 

 purple flowers of Viola calcarata form, not quite a sheet of 

 colour for the flowers occur singly, and are separated one 

 from the other by bits of green and silvery turf but some- 

 times the eye is brought nearly level with the surface of a 

 bank dotted with blossoms, and the effect is lovely. It is not 

 the effect of " massing " flowers, but that of " shot " silk. The 

 flowers of this Violet were generally very large I measured 

 several an inch and a half across, while the plants from which 

 they sprang were almost inconspicuous, and generally I had 

 to use the flower stem as a guide to the minute rosette of leaves 

 in the grass. A still more beautiful effect, and perhaps more 

 so than I have seen either in garden or wild, was observed 

 when tufts of Gentiana verna occurred pretty freely amongst 

 this Violet, the vivid blue of the Gentian in patches amongst 

 the groundwork of the Violet. In quite a valley of Gentians 

 a little lawn at an elevation of about 7000 feet were some 

 growing in a watery hollow, of a vivid and exquisite blue ; 

 they were large tufts of Gentiana bavarica. The little Box-like 

 leaves were in compact tufts, and the flowers were larger, of a 

 deeper blue than G. verna, which is saying a great deal. 



There were spots near at hand where G. verna formed a 



